Jump to content

Kenny Wheeler: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→Discography: Major changes and expansion. - Too much? Disco as article of his own?
m fixed two links
Line 58: Line 58:
*2005: ''What Now?'' (CAM Jazz)
*2005: ''What Now?'' (CAM Jazz)
*2006: ''It Takes Two!'' (CAM Jazz)
*2006: ''It Takes Two!'' (CAM Jazz)
*2008: ''Other People'' (CAM Jazz) with Hugo Wolf String Quartet featuring John Taylor
*2008: ''Other People'' (CAM Jazz) with Hugo Wolf String Quartet featuring [[John Taylor (jazz)|John Taylor]]
*2011: ''One of Many'' (CAM Jazz) with John Taylor and [[Steve Swallow]]
*2011: ''One of Many'' (CAM Jazz) with John Taylor and [[Steve Swallow]]


===Collaborations with [[John Taylor]]===
===Collaborations with [[John Taylor (jazz)|John Taylor]]===
* with [[Norma Winstone]], [[Paolo Fresu]], [[Paolo Damiani]], [[Tony Oxley]]: ''Live at Roccella Jonica'' (Ismez Polis, 1985)
* with [[Norma Winstone]], [[Paolo Fresu]], [[Paolo Damiani]], [[Tony Oxley]]: ''Live at Roccella Jonica'' (Ismez Polis, 1985)
* featuring [[Gabriele Mirabassi]]: ''[[Moon (Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor album)|Moon]]'' (Egea, 2001)
* featuring [[Gabriele Mirabassi]]: ''[[Moon (Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor album)|Moon]]'' (Egea, 2001)
Line 88: Line 88:
* with [[Brian Dickinson]]: ''Still Waters'' (Hornblower, 1999)
* with [[Brian Dickinson]]: ''Still Waters'' (Hornblower, 1999)
* with [[Fred Hersch]], Norma Winstone, [[Paul Clarvis]]: ''4 in Perspective'' (Village Life, 2000)
* with [[Fred Hersch]], Norma Winstone, [[Paul Clarvis]]: ''4 in Perspective'' (Village Life, 2000)
* with [[Marc Copland]] and [[John Abercrombie]]: ''That's for Sure'' (Challenge, 2001)
* with [[Marc Copland]] and [[John Abercrombie (guitarist)|John Abercrombie]]: ''That's for Sure'' (Challenge, 2001)
* with [[Stan Sulzmann]] and [[John Parricelli]]: ''Ordesa'' (Symbol, 2002)
* with [[Stan Sulzmann]] and [[John Parricelli]]: ''Ordesa'' (Symbol, 2002)
* with [[Bob Brookmeyer]]: ''[[Island (Kenny Wheeler album)|Island]]'' (Artist House, 2003)
* with [[Bob Brookmeyer]]: ''[[Island (Kenny Wheeler album)|Island]]'' (Artist House, 2003)

Revision as of 21:32, 3 March 2012

Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler performing in 2007.
Kenny Wheeler performing in 2007.
Background information
Born (1930-01-14) January 14, 1930 (age 94)
Toronto, Canada
GenresAvant-garde jazz
Post bop
Occupation(s)Composer
Trumpet player
Instrument(s)Trumpet, Flugelhorn

Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC (born 14 January 1930, Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s.[1]

Most of his output is rooted in jazz, but he has also been active in free improvisation and has occasionally contributed to rock music recordings. Wheeler has written over one hundred compositions and is a skilled arranger for small groups and larger ensembles.

Kenny Wheeler still lives in Britain today and is the patron of the Royal Academy Junior Jazz course.

Biography

Growing up in Toronto, Wheeler began playing cornet at age 12, and became interested in jazz in his mid-teens. Wheeler spent a year studying composition at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto in 1950. In 1952, Wheeler moved to Britain. He found his way into the London jazz scene of the time, playing in groups led by Tommy Whittle, Tubby Hayes, and Ronnie Scott. In the late 1950s, he was a member of Buddy Featherstonhaugh's quintet together with Bobby Wellins. Throughout the Sixties, he worked with John Dankworth, and also formed part of (Eric Burdon and) The Animals Big Band that made its one-and-only public appearance at the 5th Annual British Jazz & Blues Festival in Richmond (1965) with tenors Stan Robinson, Dick Morrissey and Al Gay, baritone sax Paul Carroll, and fellow trumpets Ian Carr and Greg Brown. In 1968, Wheeler appeared on guitarist Terry Smith's first solo album, Fall Out.

Kenny Wheeler has performed and recorded his own compositions with large jazz ensembles throughout his career, starting with his first album Windmill Tilter, (1969), recorded with the John Dankworth band. The Windmill Tilter LP today is a collector's item, since the original master tapes have been lost. A digitally remastered (by Andrew Thompson at Sound Performance, London) CD was released by BGO Records in September 2010. The big band album Song for Someone (1973) fused Wheeler's characteristic orchestral writing with passages of free improvisation provided by musicians such as Evan Parker and Derek Bailey, and was also named Album of the Year by Melody Maker magazine in 1975. This has subsequently been reissued on CD by Evan Parker's Psi label.

In the mid-1960s, Wheeler became a close participant in the nascent free improvisation movement in London, playing with John Stevens, Evan Parker, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble and the Globe Unity Orchestra. His involvement in this genre continues to this day. Despite the above-noted accomplishments, much of Wheeler's reputation rests on his work with smaller jazz groups. Wheeler's first small group recordings to gain significant critical attention were Gnu High (1975) and Deer Wan (1977), both for the ECM label. Gnu High is one of the few albums ever to feature Keith Jarrett as a sideman since his tenure with Charles Lloyd. One exception from the ongoing collaboration with ECM was his rare album on CBC called Ensemble Fusionaire in 1976. This had three other fellow Canadian musicians and was recorded in St. Mary's Church in Toronto for a different character to the sound than on the ECM recordings.

Wheeler was the trumpet player in the Anthony Braxton Quartet from 1971 to 1976; and from 1977 he was also a member of chamber jazz group Azimuth (with John Taylor and Norma Winstone). In 1997 Wheeler received widespread critical praise for his album Angel Song, which featured an unusual "drummerless" quartet of Bill Frisell (guitar), Dave Holland (bass) and Lee Konitz (alto sax).

Discography[2][3][4]

As leader

Collaborations with John Taylor

As Azimuth

Other collaborations

  • Robert 'Bob' Cornford, Tony Coe, Kenny Wheeler and the NDR 'Pops' Orchestra: Long Shadows (Chapter One, 2007; recorded 1979)
  • The Guildhall Jazz Band: Walk Softly (Wave, 1998; recorded 1987)
  • Tim Brady: Visions (Justin Time, 1988) with L'orchestre de chambre de Montréal
  • The Upper Austrian Jazzorchestra: Plays the Music of Kenny Wheeler (West Wind, 1996)
  • The Maritime Jazz Orchestra: Now and Now Again (Justin Time, 2002; recorded 1998) with Norma Winstone and John Taylor
  • UMO Jazz Orchestra: One More Time (A-Records, 2000) with Norma Winstone
  • Munich Jazz Orchestra: Sometime Suite (Bassic Sound, 2001)
  • Colours Jazz Orchestra: Nineteen Plus One (Astarte/Egea, 2009)

As sideman

With John Dankworth

With Philly Joe Jones

  • Mo'Joe (Black Lion, 1968)

With Collective Consciousness Society

with Paul Gonsalves

With Anthony Braxton

With George Adams

With Ralph Towner

With Rainer Brüninghaus

with Bill Frisell

With Dave Holland Quintet

With David Sylvian

With John Abercrombie

With Joni Mitchell

References

  1. ^ Allmusic biography
  2. ^ Discography at discogs
  3. ^ PSI Records
  4. ^ ECM Records

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kenny_Wheeler&oldid=480041283"